CHAPTER VII 



Chelsea Embankment opened. Loss of Thames water to the 

 Garden and damage to trees. Old Maidenhair-tree among the 

 survivors ; extraordinary antiquity of the Maidenhair-tree ; 

 its disappearance from among the wild trees ; cultivated as a 

 sacred tree in China and Japan. Old Mulberry- trees, monuments 

 to continual attempts at profitable silk-culture. The Oriental 

 Plane and London Planes. Ilex. Catalpa. Persimmon. 

 Loquat. Wistaria. Kcelreuteria. 



THE year 1874 was eventful not only in the 

 history of the Garden, but in the history of 

 Chelsea. The Chelsea Embankment was then 

 opened. 



As far back as 1843 an embankment had 

 been planned ; and an offer had been made to 

 the Apothecaries of a portion of Kew Gardens 

 in exchange for their Garden in Chelsea. 

 The Apothecaries had answered that Kew was 

 too far away for them, and that Sir Hans 

 Sloane's will put it out of their power, even if 

 they wished it, to make the exchange. 



The Chelsea Embankment, in all its newness, 

 sweeping away picturesque gardens, river- 

 stairs, barges and wharves, was execrated by 

 painters. Ruskin accepted it for the sake of 

 Carlyle, who liked it and walked on it ; and most 

 of those who remembered the smell of the mud 

 at low tide before the new drainage of London, 

 must have welcomed the change. 

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